OPPRESSORSCommunists uphold themselves as "liberators" and champions of "justice," yet between 1917 and 1976:

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60 Million people in the Soviet Union were killed.

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40% of these were executed directly by Communist officials.

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A further 66 million were incarcerated in Soviet prisons and concentration camps.

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At least half of both these totals were Christians.

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Even as late as 1982, there were an estimated 10 million people in 1000 Soviet concentration camps and prisons in the USSR alone. (Christian World Encyclopedia, OUP, 1982).

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According to the International Red Cross, at least one million people were in Soviet prisons for "religious" offences alone.

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There were over 500 000 political and religious prisoners in 160 concentration camps in Communist Vietnam. (Que Me, 1985).

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Over 1 million Afghans were killed by the Red Army in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1985 alone. (Helsinki Watch Committee, 1985).

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Over 3 million Cambodians (40% of the population) were killed by the Marxist Khmer Rouge during Pol Pot's reign of terror. (Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, 1983).

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1 800 Churches were closed by the Marxists in Ethiopia during early 1985.

AGGRESSORSAlthough Communists claim to be devoted to "world peace", they have engaged in numerous acts of armed aggression. For example:-

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The unsuccessful 1920 invasion of Poland by the Red Army.

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The successful 1921 invasion of Georgia in the Caucasian Mountains

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The 1939 invasion of Finland.

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The 1940 invasion of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

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The Hitler-Stalin pact which led to World War II. In 1940, The Red Army invaded and conquered the Eastern half of Poland while the Nazi Army conquered the Western half.

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The invasion of Korea by Red China in 1950.

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The invasion of Hungary in 1956.

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The invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

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The 1979 invasion of Afghanistan and the Soviet forces decade of war against the Afghan people.

COLONIALISTS:Although avowed "anti-colonialists", the Soviet Union was the last major colonial power on earth. Russians made up only half of the Soviet Union's population. There were 63 major national groups and over 127 languages in the vast Soviet Empire, which included such nations as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirgizia and Turkmenistan. Large sections of Poland, East Prussia, Finland and Romania were also annexed to the Soviet Union.

IMPERIALISTS:Although claiming to be "anti-imperialists", the Soviet Union had the most extensive empire in the world, with "satellite states" like Mongolia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Afghanistan all firmly under Soviet military occupation and control. Vietnam, Kampuchea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola and Nicaragua also were treated as vassal states by Soviet troops and "advisors."

MILITARISTS:From 1975, billions of dollars of Communist arms flowed into Angola from the Soviet bloc. The Soviet Union sold billions of Dollars of military equipment to Third World countries which could barely even feed their own people

In the 1980's, there were 4000 Soviet troops, 2000 East Germans and 15 000 Cuban soldiers in Ethiopia. There were 2000 Soviets, 1500 East Germans, 2100 Cubans in Mozambique. There were 2000 Soviet military advisors, 5000 East Germans, 2500 North Koreans, 30 000 Cuban troops and 6000 Cuban civilians in Angola. Moreover, Soviet warships operated from the ports of Luanda and Mocademas in Angola, and Nacala and Maputo in Mozambique. (MSM Sentinel, April 1985).

North Korean military advisors were also based in 11 African countries, including Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Seychelles, Libya, Congo, Tanzania, Benin, Uganda, Zambia and Malagasy.

PERSECUTORS:For over 70 years the Communist Party attempted to eradicate Christianity from Russia. Brainwashing, propaganda, infiltration of the Church, imprisonment, torture, concentration camps and executions failed to destroy people's faith in God and hunger for the Bible. Yet Communism continued to export not only its ideology of Atheism, Materialism and Economic Determinism, but its violent revolutionary methods, and its hatred of God, the Bible and the Christian Church. In the 1980's, 224 million Christians lived under severe state persecution, with another 70 million "Crypto-Christians", who secretly worshipped God in "underground" churches. (World Christian Encyclopedia, OUP, 1982).

In Marxist Ethiopia, where hundreds of thousands of people died of hunger in a man-made famine, severe persecution raged. In the first few months of 1985, 1800 churches of the "Kale Heywet" (Word of Life) evangelical denomination were forcibly closed by the Communists. Full Gospel, Baptist and Mennonite Churches experienced similar persecution, forcing great numbers of Christians to worship in secret. The "Mekane Jesus" (Lutheran) Church had over 200 of its pastors in jail, and one third of all their churches were closed by the Communist government. (Open Doors, 1985).

In Angola, many eye-witness accounts were recorded of Communist troops massacring evangelical congregations and threatening people to renounce their faith. On 12 September 1977, Cuban troops shot 150 Christians in the Chilesso Evangelical Church while they were worshipping God. They then desecrated the church, put the heads of oxen on the pulpit and wrote a sign - "These are now your gods. Worship them.!"

Cuban troops also attacked Cavungo Mission on 24 October 1976, where they killed the pastor and 53 Christians, including 26 lepers, who were locked into two huts and burned to death. In February 1976, Cubans attacked the Evangelical Mission of Dondi, butchering many of the believers there and turning the church into an ammunition depot. When the Cubans entered Chiumbo in 1978, they told the people - "From now on there is no longer a God; from now on God is a gun", and they sought out all who continued to worship God and killed them.

In Mozambique, the Marxist dictator, Samora Machel, declared war on the Church in 1977, calling on all Mozambiquans to unite in destroying the Church. Four thousand seven hundred Churches were confiscated, closed or destroyed. The Bible was banned. All missionaries were expelled. Evangelism was prohibited and thousands of pastors and Christians were imprisoned or sent to "re-education camps". Churches in Zambezia had an average of only one Bible for every thousand believers, and cases of Christians disappearing or being shot were commonplace.

Wherever Communism has gone, the Church was persecuted, the economy collapsed, brutal oppression, hunger and famine followed, thousands were imprisoned in concentration camps and hundreds more were executed, while thousands of refugees fled the country. The actions of the Communists speak clearly: - Communism kills, oppresses, exploits and persecutes. We should not want any of it here.

Marxist ideology offers no God, no soul, no private life, no free choice, no eternal life, no hope. We must choose Christianity. In the Bible we find the Word of God - the Truth that sets us free from atheistic deception. In Christ we find forgiveness, freedom, strength, purpose and direction. In God we find peace, love, justice and eternal life.

"See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land … But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, … I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed … This day I call Heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him." Deuteronomy 30:15 - 20